October 2012

• Title: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine #14
• Comic Vine: link
• Writer: Jane Espenson
• Artist: Karl Moline

The latest issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine isn’t what I expected. For one thing neither Buffy Summers nor any of the regular or new supporting players make an appearance.

Instead Jane Espenson, writer of some good (“Band Candy,” “Pangs,” “Checkpoint“) and not-so-good (“I Was Made to Love You,” “Doomed,” “The Harsh Light of Day“) episodes from Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s seven-year run on television, gives us a tale of a young gay teen named Billy who puts up with mean jocks and begins fighting zompires.

I understand what Espenson is doing here, but the story is pretty damn pat (he ends up having to stake and kill the football jock who has been harassing him). This kind of story would seem to fit much better in something like the Tales of Slayers anthology series than in the middle of an ongoing season arc. If I had found it there, or if was just a one-issue tale (I don’t need a second month of Billy’s misadventures), I might give it a pass, but 14 issues in, as the season is still trying to find its focus, it simply doesn’t work. Pass.

[Dark Horse, $2.99]